The Lady's Beginning
by Jack Tamara
Summary: Before she became the Lady of the House, Ginny Weasley tells the story of how she met and eventually married Draco Malfoy.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is the prequel to "Lady of the House". Before reading this, I STRONGLY recommend reading "Lady of the House" first, because that will help make the prequel click more. Plus, Lady of the House is only a one-shot and shouldn't take you very long to read. However, if you are adamant in reading this one first, it is completely understandable without having to read "Lady". That being said, enjoy, and please read and review!

The first time was a mistake.

In retrospect, Ginny supposed that she should've blamed Hermione. After all, if the bushy-haired Gryffindor hadn't been bemoaning the fact that Crookshanks had once again disappeared to the kitchen, Ginny wouldn't have volunteered to fetch the cat like the loyal Gryffindor she was.

Plus, Hermione's voice was really grating on her nerves, and she had wanted to have a legitimate excuse to get some peace, anyway.

It was because of this that Ginny found herself in the Charms corridors late at night, orange cat tucked away in her arms snugly. She was careful to tread softly on the pebbled floor, and she would've made it back to Gryffindor Tower safely if Crookshanks hadn't decided to give a large yowl that had sounded ten times louder in the dark than it would've been in broad daylight.

Ginny clamped her hand down on the cat's face, but it was too late. She could already hear Mrs. Norris's responding howl around the corner, which could only mean that Filch was steps away from finding her. Feeling Crookshanks jump out of her arms, Ginny did the only sensible thing and fled for sanctuary.

She found herself a side closet and slipped in, closing the door as quietly as she could.

"It's about bloody time you arrived," she heard someone growl in the dark, and it took her a second to process the fact that she wasn't alone in the closet like she'd originally thought.

"What?" she said in confusion, squinting in the dark to identify her unknown companion.

"Oh, bugger it all. It doesn't matter. Just shut up and come here," the voice said, and Ginny felt a hand reach out in the dark to yank her hips forward.

And before she could even raise a word in protest, she felt his lips closing over hers.

Reflecting back on the moment, she knew that the right thing to do would've been to push him away and send him off with a good hex. But in the moment, all she could think was that his sensual lips were invoking a sort of slow, burning heat in her stomach that neither Dean nor Michael had ever achieved. He navigated his tongue around the inside of her mouth skillfully, and she could hear a rumbling sort of sound building from her throat. It wasn't until his hand started inching her shirt upwards that she realized with a jolt that he was going to try and take her in the closet.

She pulled away from him, and she could hear him sigh in disappointment.

"Well, that was certainly an improvement from Marietta," the boy drawled to fill the silence. "I might just decide to keep you around, Greengrass, even if you are two years younger."

Something felt off about that sentenced. Ginny blinked and turned it over in her fuzzy mind for a minute as she processed this until she realized what was wrong. "What are you talking about? I'm not Greengrass. I'm Ginny."

There was a moment of silence, then light flooded all corners of the supplies closet, and Ginny was left staring into the all-too-familiar face of Draco Malfoy.

"Weasley?" he said in a stunned sort of voice that he quickly recovered from. "What the hell did you do with Astoria?"

Ginny adjusted her shirt and smoothed the wrinkles. "I have no idea where your beloved midnight twat is," she said crossly. "All I know was that one second I was running from Filch, and then the next I was kissing you."

"So, you just stood there without saying anything about it?" Draco said in outrage. "I just kissed a Weasley!"

"Yes, well, at least I'm better than Marietta, so you can't complain," Ginny retorted, feeling quite annoyed and offended.

Before he could come up with a biting remark, the closet door flew open, and a petite girl stood in the doorway.

"Sorry, Draco," the pretty brunette breathed. "Daphne saw me, and I had to get her off my back. You know how she'd feel if she knew about us."

Ginny scoffed. Daphne was Astoria's sister and had, apparently, had a fling with Draco Malfoy at one point in her life.

"Draco Malfoy, the biggest man-whore at Hogwarts," Ginny muttered under her breath. "Have fun with him, Greengrass. I'm going to bed."

She inched around the Slytherin girl, and stomped huffily toward Gryffindor Tower. Behind her, she could hear Astoria asking angrily, "What were you doing in here with her?"

"Shut up, Greengrass. This is all your bloody fault. If you'd only been here sooner, none of this would've happened," Draco Malfoy snarled in reply, and Ginny could hear him angrily storming down towards the dungeons.

Hermione, Filch, and absent midnight snogging partners, Ginny thought. All legitimate excuses for kissing Draco Malfoy.

She managed to make it back up to Gryffindor Tower safely and slipped into her dorm quietly, listening to the deep breathing of the other girls until she fell asleep.

*

The second time was in detention.

As the head of Gryffindor House, Professor McGonagall had asked Ginny to supervise detention on a Saturday night in lieu of her Prefect duties, and she had grudgingly agreed, something she had immediately regretted as soon as she'd found out who'd had the unlucky misfortune to land themselves a Saturday night detention.

As it turned out, Malfoy had sent his transfigured chair knocking right into the back of Neville Longbottom's head during Friday afternoon's lesson, claiming that he'd wanted to see if it sounded as empty as it looked. As of now, Neville was still lying in the Hospital Wing, trying to recover.

Ginny glared at Malfoy as he came sauntering into the room

"Sit down, Malfoy," she said icily. Neville Longbottom had, after all, been a rather good friend of hers. "According to McGonagall, you'll be mopping the floor and wiping the desks. No magic allowed."

"Shouldn't this sort of thing be reserved for people like you?" he complained, getting the mop from the closet in the back.

"You should've thought about that before hitting poor Neville in the back of the head," she told him pointedly, refusing to take his bait.

"Oh yes, poor Neville," he sneered contemptuously at the name. "If you weren't so in love with Potter, I would say that you'd been practicing your snogging on Longbottom. I can't imagine anybody else who'd willingly kiss a Weasley." He angrily jabbed the mop into the bucket of water, pushing up his sleeves.

"I can't imagine anybody who'd want to kiss a Malfoy, either," she jeered. "If it weren't for your father's money, nobody would even want to touch you."

"You say that, and yet the little noises you were making last week seem contradictory," he taunted, throwing down his mop and advancing towards her.

She held her ground coolly. "You're sadly mistaken if you think I'm attracted to you."

His eyes flashed angrily, and she figured that nobody had ever tried to bring down his ego before. There was a tense silence between them as he stared into her eyes with a long, hard look. Then, as if he'd found what he'd been looking for, he pulled her flush against him, his face relaxing.

"I think you're lying," he smirked, and then reached down to cover her lips with his own.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Ginny knew that she should have pulled away in order to make her point, but her hormones quickly set fire to that train of thought. His lips were doing sinful things to her. Her body wanted to feel alive, and Draco Malfoy was doing a bloody wonderful job of it.

She grinded her hips against his and he slipped his tongue through the seam of her mouth. When she finally broke away to come up for air, she avoided looking at his face.

"It seems like I was right, after all," he said in a superior tone, and she groaned.

"Get mopping, you smug git."

*

After that, the excuses started building up.

The third time it happened, he'd been high off of his Slytherin victory against Ravenclaw, and she couldn't bring herself to ruin his moment.

The fourth time, he'd saved her from the lake after a silly dare, and she hadn't been able to resist giving him some sort of reward.

But soon, she had had no choice but to come to terms that she couldn't just explain away her feelings for him anymore, and she told him so. After that, their relationship changed. Often times after class, he'd pull her into some dark alcove and speaking would cease for a long time. Other times, she'd visit him in his room after dinner and ask if she could study there.

And without even knowing it, the two of them had eased into a routine, He didn't look at other girls, and she didn't flirt with other guys. Occasionally, they held conversations. He would tell her about growing up as an only child and being spoiled silly by his mother. She would talk about growing up with six brothers and being the only girl in the family.

It became so that if the fancy hit them, they talked. If it didn't, they would snog. When she couldn't sleep, she would spend the night in his room. When he was in need of company, he'd curl up against her back. When she finally made the decision for them to do it together for the first time, it was nothing like they'd ever experienced before.

And for a long time, it was like they couldn't get enough of each other. He became the one that chased all the other boys away from her mind, and she was the only female besides his mother that he'd ever come close to appreciating, though he was careful to keep that part a secret.

They did everything together for the majority of his seventh year, and the only thing neither even dared to mention was the impending war.

And that was what eventually brought everything crashing down.


	2. Chapter 2

It was supposed to be one of the best days of his life. After all, hadn't he dreamed over and over again of all the great things he would accomplish once he graduated from Hogwarts?

Except, now that the day has finally come for him to leave the place, he could not bring himself to fully enjoy it. Instead of being able to look towards his bright future, he couldn't see anything past the grim one that had been thrust upon him.

He heard applause coming from all around him and concluded that the bushy know-it-all had finally finished her speech. He watched as she stepped off the stage to join her fellow Gryffindors, and a flash of dark red caught his eye.

Ginny Weasley stepped forward to embrace Granger, and from the way she was beaming and gesturing, she was probably complimenting her friend on the speech.

Draco felt a wave of bitterness wash over him as he saw her smile. She had no problem smiling and laughing as she paraded around with Loony and Potter, but when it came to him, it was like he didn't even exist anymore.

He wasn't going to lie. It hurt like hell to see her ignore him in the hallways and at dinner when he'd known that once upon a time, he'd been the center of her universe.

Across the room, a sudden movement caught his eye as he saw Harry bloody Potter reach over to Ginny and put his arm around her affectionately, and a red haze filled his vision when he saw Ginny pat the arm. His legs ached to just leap across the room to strangle his nemesis, because this sort of behavior called for primal action at its finest.

"Draco, are you okay?" his mother asked him quietly, and Draco slowly unclenched his fists and turned back forward.

"I'm fine," he told her in a hostile tone.

Or he would be once he found Harry Potter after the graduation ceremony and murdered him.

*

He found her alone after the graduation ceremony banquet was over. All during the feast, he watched as she chatted with the Mudblood like everything was fine. Then, after dessert, she'd stood up and excused herself from the table, no doubt to finish some last minute packing.

After excusing himself too, he'd tailed it out of the Great Hall after her. When he finally caught up with her, she was heading up towards Gryffindor tower. She looked behind her, saw him, and increased her pace.

"Running away from me, Ginevra?" he called out bitterly, increasing his strides so that he could catch up with her. She had ignored him for the past month after he'd spilled his secret to her. If she thought that running away from him would erase their history, she was sadly mistaken.

"Just leave me alone, Draco," she hissed, mounting the stairway. "I thought I made it clear that it was over between us."

That only angered him even more. She had abandoned him when he'd most desperately needed her, and now, she was running away again. Incensed, he lunged for her, bringing her down with him at the top of the stairway. "It's never over until I say it is," he growled, pinning her beneath him.

"Well, you're going to have to accept that for once, the world doesn't revolve around what you want," Ginny said, kicking him in the shins viciously.

He swore from the pain, but only increased his hold on her. "Maybe so, but you don't get to end it like that. I counted on you to understand, and you chose to run away."

"You told me you were a Death Eater! You told me what an honor it was! How did you think I would react?" Ginny said angrily.

Draco winced slightly; telling her about his initiation night was a decision that had ultimately cost him. "I thought you would want to know the truth for once. If I'd known that you would've run away, I wouldn't have told you anything at all."

"It doesn't matter, anyway. It's already too late," she told him, and he wanted to think that the tiny crack in her voice was due to regret and anguish.

"But it's not too late, Gin," he said almost desperately, knowing that he had to convince her of his plan. "We can still make it work. It won't be like before. I can protect you in ways that you didn't even know."

She scoffed. "Make it work? My entire family is part of the Order, and yours is only loyal to Voldemort. I don't think that would go over well with either side."

" But I have a plan," he reassured her, stroking her soft cheek with the pad of his thumb to calm her down. "All you have to do is marry me, Gin, and I'll take care of everything."

He looked deep into her amber eyes for signs of agreement and only saw the shock in them at his words.

"Draco, you can't be serious," she said after a pause, and he didn't blame her for doubting him. For the longest time in their relationship, he had always rebuffed her attempts to talk about their future. But no more, not when it was at such a crucial turning point in their relationship.

"I'm not lying. Don't you love me?" he bent down to inhale the sweet scent of her hair. "Don't you want us to be together?"

She looked back at him with unsure and torn eyes. In them, he saw the indecision and the longing. With a jolt of uncurbed elation, he realized that their separation must've hurt her as much as it had hurt him, and with that confirmation, he dipped his head down and kissed her.

She tasted even better than he'd remembered, and it was as if time had dulled his senses. It felt like the first time he'd kissed her in the darkness of that closet. He'd been surprised that it'd been her, but after that, it was like hunting her had become an obsession. Now, after their break-up a month ago, he felt like he never wanted to stop kissing Ginny Weasley.

With a moan, she rolled out from under him so that she was on top, and he tugged the back of her head down. She kissed him like never before, her legs straddling his waist. It was fierce and hard, and it felt like she was trying to memorize the shape of his lips.

Then, at the same time, they both broke away from each other, and he pulled her down so that her head was resting against his chest.

"I'll give you everything your heart's ever desired," he promised her, feeling relief wash over him at their reaffirmation of their feelings for each other. "And you'll love Malfoy Manor. I already have everything set up and—"

"Draco," she interrupted him quietly and sat up so that she was looking him the eyes. "I think you misunderstood. I'm sorry, but I can't marry you."

He snapped his mouth shut and looked at her, eyes hard. His mind could barely comprehend what she'd just said, let alone respond to it, and he could feel his blood slowly coming to a boil.

"What do you mean you can't marry me?" he sat up too, and raked a hand through his white-blond hair, gazing at her crisply. "Were you lying when you told me you loved me, then?"

"I do love you," she told him, and he felt his heart soar. "But I love my family, too. I love my parents and my brothers, and I have a duty to them."

"Everybody in your family is a traitor to our kind," he hissed, feeling his heart plunge to the ground. "Siding with them will only get you killed."

Her face hardened, and she pushed away from him. "I could say the same about you. What will happen to you when the day comes that Harry—"

"Harry!" he exploded in an uncharacteristic show of loss of control. "It's always about bloody Potter! Haven't you ever considered a day when Potter might lose to the Dark Lord?"

"If that day comes, at least I'll have remained loyal to my family," she retorted, face turning flushed with anger.

"Loyalty," he spat disgustedly. "What loyalty? Stupid, fucking Gryffindors. Always thinking with their hearts instead of their brains."

"If that's the case, then it must be quite a loss for you to realize that you've just spent the past six months associating with one," she said coldly, pushing herself up to her feet so that she could look down at him. "Goodbye, Malfoy. I hope you rot."

She twirled on the points of her feet and walked back down the corridor.

"You do realize that if I ever see you again, it'll be my duty to kill you," he warned her, standing up too.

She paused in her step, turning around half-way so that her red hair caught the light.

"I know."

It was said coldly, but he thought he could detect bitter sadness in there too.

Then, she turned back again and stepped out the door, walking right out of his life forever.

*

"Wait."

She turned to look at him expectantly in the eye, as if waiting for something. He paused where he stood, looking at her indiscernibly. She was waiting for him to say something.

He didn't.

Instead, he hit her with a stunning spell and then moved to get to her before her head hit the floor. He caught her gently and picked up her entire body, turning around and reversing their direction. It would be awhile before her family came looking for her, but he still had to be quick. If he could get them to Hogsmeade, he'd be able to use the Apparition point.

As he'd watched her walk away, he'd been hit with the sudden realization that this was truly the last time. The next time he saw her would either be out on the battlefield or at her funeral. She had not known it, but he knew that the Weasleys were set to die in a month.

But she didn't have to.

Tomorrow, he'd approach the Dark Lord and ask for permission to marry her. He'd tell his master that she would give him many sons and that it would dishearten the Order to see a Weasley become the consort of a Malfoy. Then, if she wanted, they could work on something. Maybe even try to save her damn Weasel family that she loved so much. It wouldn't matter to him, as long as she was safe and guarded inside the ancient walls of Malfoy Manor.

He knew she would be angry with him at first, but he'd make her love him again, make her see that this was the only way.

Draco pushed open the doors and headed for the gates.

One day, she'd thank him for saving her life.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Captive

The sky was an ugly orange color.

Ginny looked out the window disinterestedly, staring at a far point in the horizon.

Her feet were tucked primly beneath her and her chin was propped up on one hand.

"Mistress Malfoy, is you wanting something to eat?" a house-elf piped from her side, and Ginny tore her gaze away from the window.

She looked at the batty creature, who was balancing a tray of food with the most delectable-smelling gourmets on it, and turned away again. "No, I would not," she said perfunctorily. Indifferently.

"But Mistress has not eaten since yesterday!" the house-elf—Dilly, if Ginny remembered correctly—cried in distress, wringing its hands. "Master says that Mistress will starve."

"Well, you can tell him that I don't feel like it," Ginny said, more emphatically this time. "Now, please leave."

The house-elf disappeared along with the tray of food, but not before sending her an anguished look, and Ginny half-wondered if Draco had threatened to punish it for failing to carry out its task.

Since two months ago, she'd been playing this game. She would try to stave off food for as long as she could, finally caving just before she fainted from hunger. It made her feel closer to her family members, knowing that she was suffering as much as they were. Or had been.

"A house-elf has just reported something interesting to me with the deepest distress. Tell me, Ginevra, are you planning on killing yourself within my walls?"

She looked behind her and saw him leaning against the side of a doorway, grey eyes made lighter with his anger. She'd only ever heard him call her by her full name when he was truly furious with her.

But she didn't care anymore. He'd kidnapped her and then forced her to marry him while people in her family died fighting his side. Her parents were both gone, as were Percy and the twins. Only Bill and Charlie, who had both gotten out of the country a day early, and Ron, who was somewhere out there with Harry, had survived. She was allowed to be mean to him.

"I didn't know you cared," she told him icily. Ever since their marriage, she'd refused to fall back into their original, carefree relationship. After all that he'd done, she wasn't sure she could, even if she'd wanted to.

"Surprisingly enough, I spent a lot of time and effort keeping you alive, so yes, I do care quite a bit about what happens to you," he walked over and stood next to where she sat.

When she purposely ignored him in favor of staring out the window, he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Ginny, would you please just eat something?" he asked through gritted teeth, and it sounded like he was making a big effort to control his temper. "I know you're upset about your family, but starving yourself isn't going to bring them back."

She felt anger flare within her. "Of course you'd know that. You probably killed them."

"Don't assume anything you don't know," Draco snapped, and just like that, he was back to normal. "And you know what? I don't have to convince you of anything. Dilly!"

The house-elf appeared with a crack at his summon

"Make sure Mistress Malfoy joins me for dinner. If she is being difficult in any way, feel free to freeze her and carry her to the dining room yourself."

With that, he swept out of the room in a towering rage.

Ginny ignored his outburst and continued looking out the window, hoping that if she stared at the horizon long enough, everything would be okay.

*

Dinner was a silent and awkward affair.

Ginny stabbed her food viciously, reveling in the fact that the knife made a sickening sound every time it stuck the beef. She had considered locking herself in her room, but Dilly had suddenly looked more menacing as he'd advanced threatening on Ginny, armed with Draco's order to mobilize her if necessary.

She looked up from her spot to see him looking at her, and he spoke up.

"From now on, Dilly will be monitoring you during the day to make sure that you don't try anything stupid," he said from across the table, breaking the silence.

She glared.

"What? It's not enough that you forced me to marry you?" Ginny gutted the poor piece of meat again, slicing it furiously.

"No, it's not," he replied calmly, sipping on his wine. "And until I decide that it is, you'll be monitored for possible suicidal tendencies."

"That would be a welcome change," Ginny muttered, forking a piece of cut meat.

"Yes, we all know how much you want to join your beloved weasel family," he sneered.

"If you hadn't taken me away from them, I would've been able to help them," Ginny retorted. "You didn't even give me a choice."

"What do you know about choices?" he said softly, bitterly. "This is war. Nobody has a choice. And if you really think that you think that you do, maybe you should get a dose of reality."

He got up from the table and walked right out of the room, leaving Ginny alone with Dilly.

*

That evening, he came to get her.

"I want to show you something," he said, standing in the doorway and watching her move around her room.

She stared at him quietly, remembering what he'd said at dinner, and then grudgingly allowed him to show her the way.

He led her down to his study and closed the door behind them, fetching something from his cabinet. When Ginny leaned in for a closer look, she saw that it was a pensieve.

"These are some of my most important memories," he closed his eyes and pulled out one, two, three silvery strands from his mind and cast it into the bowl-shaped object. "The first one is the night everything both started and ended everything for me."

Then, holding onto her hand, he gently touched the watery surface, and they plunged into his memory.

Ginny felt dizzy momentarily, and it took a moment before she looked up.

They were standing in the middle of a cemetery. All around her, she could see the endless tombstones on graves, and up over the hill, there was a big house towering over the landscape.

Ginny bit her lip as she looked around her and noticed that she and Draco were standing in the middle of a circle. Surrounding them, she could see the endless black crowd of Death Eaters. There were some that were easily recognizable, even with their masks on, and some that she had a hard time identifying. At the head of the circle, a lone figure stepped inside.

"Tonight," the figure hissed, raising his head so that Ginny could see his blood-red eyes, "we call upon a member of one of our oldest Pureblood families for initiation. Upon taking my mark, he promises to be loyal to the cause and to eradicate the those of lesser blood. Tonight, we will accept Draco Malfoy into our circle."

Ginny watched as a younger Draco stepped forward from the circle, lowering his mask so that she could see the grey of his irises, and kneeled before his Dark Lord.

"Draco Malfoy, do you pledge to rid our society of those who would contaminate the bloodline?" Voldemort walked in a circle around Draco's kneeled figure.

"I do," Draco said in a firm voice.

"And do you promise to eradicate Muggles, Mudbloods, and blood traitors?"

Ginny watched as he froze at the last word before quickly dropping his eyes to the ground.

"I do," he promised, betraying none of the momentary indecision that he'd just went through.

"And do you swear to be loyal to me and to use the power I give you for the greater good?" Voldemort came to a standstill in front of him.

"I do," Draco said, and then stood up to face his new master.

"Your arm then, Draco," Voldemort said softly, and Draco pulled back the sleeve of his left forearm.

Voldemort placed the tip of his wand at the base of a blue vein, and Ginny watched in horror as the Dark Mark took shape, black wisps of smoke arising as it burned itself into the skin forever.

Younger Draco gritted his teeth in pain, but didn't make a sound. When Voldemort finally removed his wand and held up the newly branded mark, the circle cheered in approval.

And Draco stood in the midst of it all, holding up his arm proudly, looking like he'd just been bestowed the greatest honor.

"It was knowing that I could. It was being able to show people like Granger that pure-bloods were better than Muggle-borns in every way, no matter how many questions they answered correctly in class. And most of all, it was power. For once in my life, I was included in reshaping a better world," present Draco said quietly next to her. "And I wanted nothing more than to be in control."

"I don't think I want to stay here anymore," Ginny said truthfully, trying not to look at the scene in front of her. It was too real to her. Even though it was a memory, she didn't want to have to look at the crowd of pure-blood supremacists any longer.

"You're going to wish you'd stayed here," Draco laughed bitterly. "It gets worse than this."

And then, he was tugging on her hand, and they were falling into the next memory.

This time they landed in some kind of room, and once again, a circle had already formed. If Ginny looked closely, she could see that there were gargoyles mounted at the sides of the stairway.

"This," Draco looked around until he found what he was looking for, "was the first time I ever killed a man."

Ginny followed the direction of his gaze until her eyes landed on a kneeling figure in the middle.

"Please, my Lord," the man was begging, rocking back and forth pathetically, "forgive me. I didn't mean to. It was an accident---"

There was a high, cruel laugh. "Did you not swear to be loyal to me, Addison? To serve me faithfully?"

"I tried, my Lord," Addison gasped for air. "Give me one more chance..."

"I think not, Addison," Voldemort said, reaching for his wand and holding it loosely in between his fingers. "Lord Voldemort does not forgive easily. Twice you have failed to kill the Weasleys and bring Harry Potter to me because of your incompetence and sympathy. You have betrayed me by breaking your oath to be faithful; there are no more chances. Draco!"

Still reeling from the mention of her family, Ginny almost failed to see younger Draco step forward once again from the circle, a glimpse of his platinum blond hair shining in the light.

"Yes, my Lord?"

" Kill him," Voldemort said coldly and swept out of the room with Nagini draped over his shoulders.

The rest of the Death Eaters watched in frenzy anticipation as Draco twirled his wand expertly, as if to test the familiarity.

Ginny watched him fearfully, silently urging him to lower his wand and leave the room.

Even as she prayed for him to stop, she knew what was going to happen. In flash of green light, the man named Addison keeled over, dead, and it was over.

Ginny closed her eyes, feeling bile rise up in the back of her throat. It wasn't out of pity for Addison. Instead, it was from seeing Draco do something like that without even batting an eyelid.

"The next one is the worst," Draco said beside her and grabbed her wrist one last time.

She stumbled as she landed and had to steady herself before she took in her surroundings. Instead of a room, she found herself in some sort of disgusting and dark alleyway. On closer investigation, Ginny could make out a tiny one-story house down at the end, with similar houses built along the road.

"Fucking Mudblood community," someone said next to her, and she jumped back as a hooded and masked Death Eater swept past her, laughing along with his companions.

"True, but it's always fun to hear them scream," another one licked his lips.

"I hope she does," the first rubbed his hands in anticipation. "I can teach her a thing or two about her place underneath me."

Ginny felt dizzy as she inferred what the men were talking about. Looking at the five figures, she tried to figure out which one was Draco, hoping that it wasn't the first one that had spoken.

"You get her, MacNair," a third one said, pushing the first man towards the door. "It was your idea."

"I will," MacNair laughed. "And I'll be the first to have her."

He walked up the doorsteps, his footsteps heavy on the doorstep, and used his wand to blast open the door.

"No," Ginny whispered, averting her eyes. She didn't want to see this. This wasn't going to happen. "Draco, I want to leave," she tugged on his arm none too gently, but he ignored her.

And that's when the screaming started.

"You need to see this," Draco spun her around so that she was looking straight at the scene. And once she started, it was like she couldn't stop.

She was such a pretty girl. So, so beautiful. Even in the dark, Ginny could see that.

They dragged her to the end of the dead-end street, and Ginny could see the crooked angle of her open legs.

And when the woman's husband came running from the house, yelling for them to stop, MacNair lazily flicked his wand, sending him flying back, where his head crunched sickeningly on the doorstep, blood seeping out from underneath him.

Ginny's heart dropped when she saw the shadow of a little girl—no more than five-years-old—hiding behind the front door, sobbing in fear with no one to comfort her. Her big eyes alternated between her parents, filling with wave after wave of tears as she buried her tiny head in between her knees and clamped a tiny hand over her mouth, afraid of what the men would do to her if she made a sound.

Ginny squeezed her eyes closed as tight as they could go, trying to ignore the noises of the group of Death Eaters. Growing up in a warm and loving family who'd always tried to shelter her, she'd never had to see any of this.

"We're done here," she heard a Death Eater growl, and she chanced to open them again. "She's no fun. You should've killed him afterwards, MacNair. Didn't react at all after that."

Ginny opened her eyes and looked over; it was true. The woman now seemed to just lay there, the white of her legs contrasting against the black of the road, stunned. It was as if she was just sitting back and accepting her fate.

"Ah, well, it's okay, Malfoy," one of them clapped Draco on the back. "We'll get our turn soon. I heard they're finally closing in on the Weasleys in a month and a half's time, and that they'll be keeping the littlest one for the rest of us."

Draco's eyes glazed over and stilled for the barest of a second. "Ginny Weasley?"

The other Death Eater chuckled. "No other female Weasleys out there. Personally, I think the Dark Lord's saving her for initiation. And when Zabini and Nott are done, he'll probably let us have a go, too. She'll be propaganda, so that the public knows the consequences of helping blood traitors."

"Interesting," Draco said in deep thought, drawing up the hood of his cloak again so that the darkness swallowed him.

Ginny saw him take one last glance back at the woman, whose ice-blue eyes were now staring listlessly at the sky, and her daughter, who had run over to her father's body. Then, present Draco was pulling her up through the pensieve and back into his office.

"That," he said, putting the pensieve away for later use, "was the night that changed everything."

She tried, but couldn't bring herself to look at him as she squeezed out of the office and ran for the loo, barely making it before she vomited all over the white-tiled floor.

*

That night alone in her room, she couldn't sleep.

The moon was too bright, and the nighttime noises seemed to have been amplified.

Flipping onto her stomach, Ginny buried her head under her pillow and tried to count kneazles to no avail. Groaning, she turned onto her back again, looking up at the ceiling. If she was honest with herself, she didn't want to close her eyes because in her mind, she could still hear the woman screaming and the girl crying as she watched her father die.

At last, when she'd finally managed to reach the midpoint between sleep and consciousness, she was freshly awakened by the sound of someone opening her door.

"Ginny," the person said, shaking her, and she realized that it was Draco. "Wake up."

She sat up, watching as Draco rifled through the closet and tossed something at her.

"Put that on," he told her in a worried voice. "We're going to go see the Dark Lord."

"I don't understand," Ginny said, scrambling up and pulling on the robe that Draco had tossed her. It was big and bulky, and she could feel the thickness of the robe cutting off all outside air.

"He's ordering that everyone attend, so it must be big," Draco commented absentmindedly, pushing a hand through his hair and grabbing onto Ginny's wrist, pulling her through the darkened hallways of Malfoy Manor.

Draco touched the Dark Mark on his left forearm, and Ginny felt a pulling sensation in her navel. When she landed alongside Draco, she saw that she was standing in the same room as the one in Draco's second memory. This time, it seemed as if they were the last ones, because everybody seemed to be waiting for them.

"Step forward, Draco," the high-pitched voice said coldly, and Ginny dared to glance at the deformed face even as Draco pushed her back to blend in with the rest of the circle.

"My Lord," Draco murmured, kneeling down before his master.

"Tell me, Draco," Voldemort said, twirling his wand as if in preparation, "did you not swear loyalty to me?"

Draco hesitated, feeling as if it were a trick question.

"Yes, my Lord," he finally said.

"And has your job not been to rid us of Mudbloods and blood traitors," Voldemort asked, and Ginny credited Draco for being able to keep an indifferent face.

"Yes, my Lord," Draco said, more slowly this time.

"So, imagine finding out that one of my most prized Death Eaters," Voldemort said softly, "has been trying to aid the blood traitor cause."

"I—" Draco started, suddenly realizing how much danger he was in.

"You helped two of the Weasleys escape after requesting permission to marry one," Voldemort raised his wand above Draco's head. "You told me that you wished to convert her and provide me with many future Death Eaters when you've been protecting her right from the start."

"My Lord—"

"So, in punishment, I do believe I will be handing your wife over to Zabini, to do what he may with her," Voldemort said, and Blaise Zabini smiled wolfishly down at Ginny, his eyes glittering behind his mask.

"As it should've been from the very start if Draco hadn't interfered," he whispered gratingly into her ear, and she trembled from where she stood.

"And for his treachery," Voldemort raised his voice so that everyone could hear him, "Draco Malfoy will die tonight. Let it be a warning to anyone who chooses to consort with blood traitors of her kind."

Then, he swept out of the room, and Blaise Zabini and two other Death Eaters stepped forward, surrounding Draco. They all lowered their hood one by one, and Draco eyed each of them coolly, as if he hadn't just been condemned to death.

Ginny stood in the circle of Death Eaters, watching as Blaise Zabini brought Draco to the ground, biting the inside of her mouth to stop herself from crying out. They cursed him time and time again, and she felt as she were re-watching the scene from Draco's memory. She could feel the tears running down her face as they tortured him into the night, but she still stayed silent. But when they finally tired of their game and sent him spread-eagled in front Ginny, she finally lost it and screamed until her voice bled, knowing that there was nothing worse in the world than staring into those grey, unseeing eyes for what she knew was to be the last time in her life.

*

She stepped out of her room as quietly as she could, fumbling down the darkened hallway. Although ever since her marriage she'd refused to step inside Draco's room, choosing to take a spare guestroom instead, she still knew that it was located two doors down the opposite side.

Ginny paused in front of his room and fumbled with the lock noisily. When she entered, she could see him facing the window, hands laced behind his back.

He turned when he heard her come in, raising an eyebrow when he saw her.

"Ginny?" he asked in disbelief. In the three months that she'd been here, she'd always refused to come in to his sanctuary.

She stared at his full figure in relief for a minute, thankful that it'd all just been a dream, taking in all the little nuances in his physical appearance.

Then, wordlessly, she crossed the room and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her tear-stained face into his neck. She could feel the rough beating of his heart, the planes of his body. He still smelled exactly the same as he had back in Hogwarts, and it was enough that he was still alive and breathing and well.

She pulled back slightly away from him, and felt a collapsing rush of gratitude when she saw his beautiful grey eyes search her face for answers.

Without further ado, she grasped the back of his head and dragged his head down to meet hers. Ginny moved her lips against in his, reveling in the feeling and trying to pull him even closer to her. His lips felt heavenly against hers; it'd been too long, and she'd forgotten just how much she'd missed this.

She broke away first. "I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want us to not talk to each other. I don't want to pretend like you don't matter to me," she murmured against his lips, closing her eyes, thankful for the knowledge that he wasn't dead upon the ground like he'd been in her dream.

"So don't," he whispered back and kissed her again. Ginny reached up and shrugged his shirt off even as he backed her up against his bed.

She placed disconnected kisses everywhere she could touch, and pulled him even closer for more body contact as he entered her, finally consummating their marriage.

Ginny looked at him as he moved inside of her, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him tightly and securely, reveling in the feeling that they were together again.

She was never going to let him go for as long as she lived.

A/N: So, I just wanted to make it clear that this is only a short, four chapter story, and will not deeply dive into the development of the D/G relationship. I'm starting a new long chaptered fic that WILL explore and develop the D/G relationship fully, but it's just not meant to be for this one. For those of you that read "Lady", you already know the ending, so I feel like it limits my creativity as to what I can come up with. I'm really sorry.

Another thing is a lot of people added this story to either their favorites or their story alert, but didn't leave a review. Please read and review! I don't mind constructive criticism, because it'll help me improve my writing, but at least take a minute to just let me know how I'm doing. It would really make my day.

Thanks so much to **delete-the-girl, twinsofthesky, lucygirl07, veronica21, Callidora-Malfoy, and Black Lagoon **for reading and reviewing!


	4. Chapter 4

She always dreaded Fridays.

He knew that in the way that he knew what time of the month she'd be especially irritable and what her favorite gelato flavor was. He was also quite aware that she had every reason to dread Fridays, and that it was not entirely unjustified.

"Today's a bad day already," she told him from the bed, feet flat against the bedspread and red hair fanned away from her face.

He heard her and looked at her in the mirror, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt and taking in the way her formerly slim figure now swelled at the abdomen.

"Fridays are difficult for me, too," he reminded her, turning around. "Surprisingly, it gets tiring to hear them talk about you. Just hope they don't say anything about your brothers. I know for a fact that the Dark Lord is getting quite angered with the oldest one."

Ginny sighed. It'd been years since she'd last seen Bill. He was in France, heading the resurrected Order, while she was quarantined in England.

"I wish I could see him," she said mournfully, placing the bottoms of her feet flat against the mattress, knees curved and legs touching her thighs.

"Not when you're about to have the baby," he reminded her gently, coming to sit next on her side of the bed. "You can tell him that the Dark Lord is making plans to send a group of us to France to eliminate the threat, though. That should give him some kind of warning."

She nodded unhappily. After she'd married Draco and lost her family, Bill, Charlie, and Ron had become her only connection with her Weasley past. Ginny had tried to stay connected with them, but it was hard. Ever since Draco had arranged for Charlie and Bill to leave the country on false pretenses of work obligations, they'd been barred from coming back to England. The only Weasley who wasn't was Ginny, and she was fully aware that it was only because Draco had managed to convince Voldemort that she would provide for his next generation of Death Eaters.

Ginny placed a hand on her stomach, where she felt something kick from inside. All through the pregnancy, she'd been holding on to the hope that it would be a girl. Not because she didn't want a son, but she figured that Voldemort would be less interested in a daughter.

"She's doing it again," she told Draco, who was toying with a piece of her hair.

His grey eyes found hers, and he opened his mouth like he wanted to say something before snapping it shut. "Right. She," he said wryly, looking as if he were keeping something from her. "But you won't be disappointed if it's a boy, right?"

She thought about it. "No. A boy's fine. But it would be nice if he could come out looking like one of my brothers. I miss them so much."

His face was taking on that oddly strangled look again. "I have a feeling he'll look more like me," he informed her. "Just like every other one of my predecessors has looked like me."

"Well, a mini Draco running around wouldn't be too bad, either. Just hope that he doesn't come with the attitude and snark, though. I don't think I could handle two of you," she closed her eyes and smiled when she felt him tug on a strand of her hair in retribution for her comment.

She felt a soft, natural silence settle over them that was broken by a house-elf.

"Master Draco, there's someone at the door," Dilly said, popping his bat-shaped head in.

Draco sighed and stood up, adjusting his shirt. "That would be Theo. That git's always the earliest one here and the last to leave."

"I think I like Theo best out of all your friends," she decided. Out of all of them, Theo was the quietest, never participating in boasting about himself and his conquests. In fact, Ginny couldn't remember ever hearing him open his mouth. "He's better than either Blaise or Flint."

He threw her an amused look. Even before Ginny had met either of them, she'd seemed to have harbored a hatred for both. "You never did like them right from the very start," he commented off-handedly, fixing the cufflinks.

"Yes, well, I have a feeling that they would be the first to torture and kill you if given the chance," she remarked darkly. She'd never told him about her dream, but she could still picture the circle of Death Eaters, with Draco standing in the center as he watched Blaise Zabini and Marcus Flint step forward.

"Well, tonight's solely for pool and drinks, so you don't need to worry about that," he opened their bedroom door and stepped outside.

"Be careful," Ginny whispered behind him, harboring the deep fear that one day he would leave and never come back.

He looked back at her reclining figure and gave her a reassuring half-smile. "I will."

And then he was gone, and she could hear him descending the stairs, greeting Theo Nott in that detached and indifferently cool tone that she knew he was capable of.

She got up from the bed, stretching her aching back, and pulled on the heavy robes that she detested wearing. At the very least, it was better than running into Blaise Zabini in a darkened hallway and being molested by him. In the past, she would've fought him. But now, until her baby was born, she was in no condition for rigorous physical pain when she was so close to the due date.

Ginny grabbed her coin from her bureau drawer, casting a Protean charm on it so that a message to Bill would etch itself on the rims. They'd developed this system when letters had first became suspect to inspection. Anybody who tried to read it wouldn't be able to understand it, but Bill would have no problem.

She tucked the coin back into its proper place and settled down again, listening as Draco's friends arrived one by one.

She sighed, turning onto her left side.

It was going to be a long night.

*

"He's late again," Adrian sighed, resting a hand negligently on the top of his stick.

Draco sat in the darkened corner, arms on the chair seat, and watched as Marcus approached the table, expertly shooting the ball into the corner pocket. Chances were that Blaise had brought a pretty girl and wanted to make an entrance. Ever since the time he'd tried to corner Ginny in the South Wing, he'd brought someone different every time. Draco couldn't really recall what they'd looked like. There were too many of them.

"About time you showed up, Blaise! We've already started without you," Theo greeted, standing up to welcome his friend.

"Looks like he's brought a lady friend with him," Marcus pointed out, revealing his crooked teeth.

Draco lazily tore his gaze away from the burning fire to see what all the commotion was about and did a double take. He blinked a few times, glad that his shock was hidden within the depths of the darkness, as he took in the girl's beautiful face and ice-blue eyes.

"What about you, Draco? Surely, your wife could take a break from your libido?" Adrian laughed, and he snapped out of his musings when he heard his name.

It took a minute for Draco to recall the question, but he smirked to himself when he thought of his red head wife, who was currently tucked away in their bedroom. If anything, her libido was even higher than his. With all her hormones going into overdrive with her pregnancy, she'd been shagging him in all sorts of positions and places around the manor. In fact, if memory served him, that pool table sitting right in front of him had been used quite inappropriately just last week. Something told him that Ginny had taken a sort of perverse pleasure in doing something like that in the room that all his friends often congregated in.

"My wife is of no concern to you, Adrian. She does as I say," he only said, using his customary bored tone

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to change it up a bit, Malfoy? We could switch for a night. Who knows? You could end up having a lot more fun with this one," Blaise said excitedly as he brought forth the girl.

Draco looked at him with mirth and pity, knowing that Blaise couldn't read his face. Blaise obviously had no clue that his supposed ace was nothing more than the common mudblood that he put down every day. And to think he wanted Draco's pure-blood wife in exchange.

Nonetheless, he stepped away from the shadows stonily, advancing on the woman. She bit her red lips, lips that Draco had once seen wide open in desperation. He grasped her face and turned it from one side to the other, fingers brushing slightly over the raised skin of the scar that ran diagonally down the upper half of that throat.

He stepped back, releasing the face, knowing that it was truly her. Draco discreetly wiped his hand on the back of his pants; there was only so much that Ginny could do to change his purist ways, after all.

"She's not my type," he told Blaise flatly. _And she wouldn't be yours, either, if you knew who she really was, _he added on in his mind.

Draco watched as Blaise drew the woman back, mouth drawn tight.

"Well, we can't all have Ginevra warming our beds at night," Marcus said, and the conversation turned.

Draco listened, responding with all the appropriate answers, only putting his foot down when Adrian crossed a line.

"That's quite enough," he said coldly in response to Adrian's crude comment, and the others backed off.

Only the girl stared resolutely at the door, silent. She had yet to say a word since she'd stepped into the room.

"Let's finish the game," he said abruptly, twirling his stick in hand nonchalantly, but always keeping a wary eye out for trouble.

He had enough to worry about these days.

*

Ginny was standing in the decorated nursery room across from the master bedroom when she thought she heard something coming from her room that sounded like somebody was sifting through something.

She quietly withdrew her wand from inside her robes, holding it in front of her protectively. Her heart thumped furiously as she imagined what one of Draco's friends would be doing in there; she didn't know what she'd do if she found Blaise Zabini in her bedroom.

Slipping through the wide gap in the door, she saw a dark shape rifling through her drawers. When the figure moved, Ginny half thought that she would see Blaise's distinctive square jaw and glittering eyes. Instead, she was relieved to find that the figure was much slimmer than Blaise's would've been. She relaxed visibly, and then stiffened she saw what was in its hands.

"I would put that down if I were you. My husband doesn't tend to take well towards thievery," she said coldly in imitation of Draco, looking at the diamond necklace that Narcissa had given her. "Besides, that necklace was a gift from my mother-in-law and has been in the Malfoy family for generations. He'd have you carted to Azkaban if he saw you with that in your hands."

A bit of a mean exaggeration, but Ginny did not take well towards stealing. Her entire family had grown up poor, and yet, Ginny had never lowered herself to taking something that wasn't rightfully hers.

The woman turned towards Ginny, making sounds like it was difficult for her to swallow.

"Well?" Ginny demanded when the woman didn't say anything, didn't at least try to explain. "Do you want to explain yourself, or should I just bring you to my husband and let him deal with you?"

At that, it was as if a dam had broke inside the girl, and she rushed forward into the light from the hallway, gesturing wildly.

When she saw her, Ginny did a double-take.

She only faintly registered that the girl was grabbing onto her hands tightly with her own, but Ginny felt no pain. Only shock and recognition. She'd only seen blue eyes like that once in her life.

It was the girl that she'd seen getting raped in Draco's last and final memory, the one that he'd shown her more than two years ago.

"How much more do you need?" Ginny managed to get out, interrupting the tirade.

Ginny saw the confusion register in those eyes, eyes that she still sometimes saw in the back of her mind.

"What?" the woman gulped, and Ginny repeated herself, feeling pity override her previous contempt and anger.

"Two hundred and twenty-six. I still need two hundred and twenty-six galleons," the woman told her in a quiet voice.

"Okay," Ginny only vaguely heard herself agreeing. After all, Draco's account was almost bottomless. She didn't think he'd begrudge the woman this chance to start over, to leave behind her bad memories in England where every shapeless Death Eater mask probably reminded her of that night. She must've wanted the money very badly if she had willingly stepped into the strongholds of one of the oldest pure-blood families.

"If I give you the money you need, will you deliver something for me in France?" Ginny asked, suddenly remembering what she'd needed to send Bill. It was easy enough for her to get it to her brother, but somehow, she wanted to share a part of herself with her with this woman. The first and only one that Ginny had ever seen violated like that. The one who was partially responsible for saving her and Draco's relationship.

In the back of her mind, Ginny saw herself handing the coin to the woman. And then she was closing the bedroom door again, where she would stay in there alone with her thoughts until the night was over and Draco's friends went home.

*

Normally, Ginny fell asleep soon after intercourse, but tonight, from the way her breathing was still uneven, he could tell that she was still awake.

"Is he bothering you again?" he asked, running a hand over her rounded belly soothingly, hoping that the news that Malfoy firstborns were always male hadn't disappointed her too much.

She sighed.

"No, it's not that," she said, and she grew silent again.

Ginny pressed her head into the top of Draco's arm, absentmindedly making circles in the heart of his palm as she thought about what she'd seen tonight.

"I saw her today," she said softly in the dark, after a brief pause. "That woman in your memory."

Draco wasn't surprised. The girl had disappeared for a long time and had come back looking a lot more hopeful and radiant.

"What did you guys talk about?" he asked, pressing his nose into her hair.

"She needs money to get out of England with her daughter and to start over, so I promised to give it to her," Ginny explained quietly, still brooding.

"Maybe that's for the best," he mused. "Nobody really sees Blaise's girls again after he's tired of them."

She turned towards him, her caramel eyes clouded with thought. "Can you speak with customs, then? Make sure that she doesn't have any trouble? I don't want to know what Blaise would do if he knew the truth," she told him, stroking the side of his face distractingly.

"Is that what you want?" he asked. He didn't have the same sentimentality as Ginny did, having seen countless of girls subjected to similar fates, but Ginny seemed to take this one very personally.

"Yes, it's what I want," Ginny said firmly, unhesitatingly.

He sighed in the dark. "Then I'll see what I can do. Now go to sleep. Too much stress isn't good for you or the baby."

"Thank you," she said, kissing him softly before turning around so that they were spooning again.

She fell asleep quickly after that, but Draco stayed awake all night, thinking. He was falling fast from favor with the Dark Lord, especially after his continued reluctance to invest more energy into hunting down members of the new Order. It was fine for him to kill off ones that weren't too prominent, but he couldn't bring himself to kill any of Ginny's brothers and friends, knowing that it could isolate her from him forever if she ever found out. Because of that, his parents were already suffering the Dark Lord's wrath and impatience.

Draco buried his face deeper into her neck.

He didn't know what he'd do if they took away Ginny too.

*

Ginny looked around her, stepping gingerly into the house. It still looked the same as she remembered it. The only thing was that the blood had long been scrubbed off from the doorsteps. It now looked as if it'd been repainted.

She waddled around the bare quarters, careful not to tread on anything on the floor, and took in her surroundings.

Ginny paused at a picture tacked to the wall. It was the only decoration in the house. In it was a photo of three people. She easily recognized all of them. The man had an arm around the woman's waist while his free arm hoisted a tiny, three-year-old girl. All three of them were smiling, but there was a worried expression in their eyes. She wondered if even then, they'd known that something was going to go wrong. Upon closer inspection, the man looked vaguely familiar, and Ginny would later find out that he'd gone to Hogwarts with both Draco and Ginny.

Turning away from the picture, Ginny gently draped the woman's shrug on the back of a chair, dropped the bag of money on to the tabletop, and left.

Behind her, the three people talked and moved amongst themselves, forever frozen in time.

*

The war ended five months after Hyperion's first birthday.

When the time came, Ginny had insisted on going with Draco, who'd been adamant that she stay home and wait for him. She'd refused, finally divulging that she had harbored a secret desire for an equal chance to kill Blaise.

In the end, she'd stubbornly went anyway, and he'd had no choice but to follow. And even though Theo Nott was the one who killed his friend on the battlefield, she'd still taken guilty pleasure in seeing the demise of the man who'd haunted her for so long.

After the fall of Voldemort, she'd thought that things would finally be right again, but she was wrong.

A month after the final battle, Draco was pulled from their home and brought in front of all of Wizengamot to go on trial for his Death Eater activities.

When that happened, Ginny had to floo and threaten Ron, and remind both Bill and Charlie of how Draco had saved them before they all reluctantly agreed to testify in his defense. As for herself, she'd stood in front of Minister Shacklebolt and spun story after story about Draco's heroics, even bringing Hyperion into the courtroom as Draco sat superiorly in his chair, alternating between smirking proudly at his wife and feigning remorse when they questioned him.

In the end, he was released on only a warning, and even Ginny was slightly suspicious about how fast it'd all happened. She had been ready to debate this for days on end. Draco had, after all, not been quite as virtuous and gracious as she'd painted him to be.

The answer came a few days later when Draco casually announced during dinner that he was building a new hospital wing to St. Mungo's.

"Whatever for?" Ginny asked, confused.

"As it turns out, the Ministry is short on money at the moment, especially considering how many people were injured during the war. So, naturally, I agreed to donate a hefty amount to charity, to show how truly sorry I am," he smirked self-satisfactorily. "I don't think they would've taken 'no' for an answer, either."

"Hm," Ginny huffed. "No wonder you got off so easily. And to think that instead of preparing my speech for days, all I had to do was give them your account number at Gringotts."

"Yes," he sighed in content, raising a fork to his mouth, "but it was certainly nice hearing you praise me, even if it was all fictional. You never spoil me like that when we're at home. Besides, you should be happy about this. The new hospital wing is dedicated in your name."

"My name?" Ginny wrinkled her nose. "You should've just did it in yours."

He shrugged.

"That's not nearly as interesting. The public likes the idea of a Death Eater loving his wife so much that he would spend an exorbitant amount of money to commission a hospital wing in her honor," Draco said, taking his son out of high chair and bouncing Hyperion on his knee so that his wisps of dark blond hair fell across his forehead. "I'll have you know that I told the Daily Prophet the sappiest things that came to mind. They'll probably print something tomorrow about our everlasting love, just so you know."

Ginny rolled her eyes and took Hyperion back from Draco so that she could feed him properly.

Some things would just never change.

*

They were on vacation in France one summer when Ginny thought that she saw the woman again.

She caught a glimpse at the dark brown hair as she was walking down the Champs-Elysee, having just put both Hyperion and his sister down for a nap. Ginny knew that the woman was still in France, but had never run into her. On more than one occasion, Ginny had considered asking Bill about where she lived, but could never follow through. Some things just weren't meant to be revisited again, and this felt like one of them.

She left France that year without saying a word and tucked her memories of the woman away under her metamorphic bed.

Ginny never mentioned her again.

~FIN

**A/N: **...And there you go. Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed, especially** noona1, Callidora-Malfoy, Hollandtheamoeba, Starlight Ellie, andthenshesaid, lucygirl07, Hybrid Gin, veronica21, delete-the-girl, Black Lagoon, HeavilyBrokenSpirit, intrepidx. **Your words really made my day, and I will personally respond to every single one of them tonight. It just might take me a while, but I'll get there.

And if you feel so inclined and wanted a longer story with actual Draco/Ginny relationship development, I'm starting two new fics. One is already up, called Lie to Me, and the other I will update this week. Regardless of whether or not you read those, though, thank you to everyone who's reading this right now. You guys are amazing.

Please leave me a review one last time?

-JT


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